Hitherto, substances in powdered or liquid form have been surface coated in order to impart decorative and/or functional effects such as whitening to the stratum corneum of the epidermis of the skin. Accordingly, external factors such as sweating and meteorological conditions inevitably lead to a marked drop or fluctuation in the function of such substances.
Accordingly, as methods that are not influenced by the external factors above, methods are proposed that employ functional micropiles manufactured using X-ray lithography processes, electrocasting processes, and injection molding processes (see patent documents 1 and 2).    Patent document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2003-238347    Patent document 2: JP-A No. 2007-130417